---
title: But he answered, “My lords, whichever wife leaps quickest to the doo… — Russian Folk-Tales · tree and pragmatics
description: But he answered, “My lords, whichever wife leaps quickest to the door shall remain with me.” Who acts: Iván, wife. A sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 2, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

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# Russian Folk-Tales, Opening, part 2, sentence 61

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But he answered, “My lords, whichever wife leaps quickest to the door shall remain with me.”

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**Who acts:** Iván, wife · **What happens:** answer, leap, remain · **To what, where:** lords, quickest · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Opening, part 2. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Iván, wife), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Mova's own parse.** This tree may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg62509:2:61
# text = But he answered, “My lords, whichever wife leaps quickest to the door shall remain with me.”
1	But	but	CCONJ	CC	_	3	cc	_	_
2	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nsubj	_	_
3	answered	answer	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	SpaceAfter=No
4	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	7	punct	_	_
5	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	7	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
6	My	my	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Number=Sing|Person=1|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	7	nmod:poss	_	_
7	lords	lord	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	3	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	11	punct	_	_
9	whichever	whichever	DET	WDT	PronType=Rel	10	det	_	_
10	wife	wife	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nsubj	_	_
11	leaps	leap	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	7	acl:relcl	_	_
12	quickest	quick	ADJ	JJS	Degree=Sup	11	obj	_	_
13	to	to	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	door	door	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
16	shall	shall	AUX	MD	VerbForm=Fin	17	aux	_	_
17	remain	remain	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	11	ccomp	_	_
18	with	with	ADP	IN	_	19	case	_	_
19	me	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	17	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
20	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	3	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
21	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	3	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

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| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **answer** *speech: assert* | past | Iván |  | My lords |  |  |  | vn reciprocate-112-1 «NP V PP»: agent=Agent lord=Eventuality |
| 2 | **leap** *in a quote* | present | whichever wife | quickest |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **remain** *in a quote* | shall | whichever wife *not said here* |  |  |  |  | to the door; with Iván | vn exist-47.1 «NP V»: agent=Theme |

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One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Russian Folk-Tales» by A. N. Afanas'ev, Project Gutenberg book 62509 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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